Development Squads Deserve Respect and a Profile
Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 11:07 pm
Today we travelled to Kilkenny to watch the U15 Offaly Hurling Development Squad play a blitz against Cork and Kilkenny. We lost. So did the U16s. It won't take long before people will say "Sure what's new...there's no future..."
We're not giving these lads a fighting chance.
The management of the U15 Development Squad is absolutely excellent. They are doing all they can. The training has been stepped up to high intensity, high skill development for these boys. We've had skills tests, various expertise brought in and we can honestly say that the training this year has been transformed. The Squad got lovely gear too.
The dates for these development squad blitzes are known months in advance. They are on the county board calendar. The problems we have are that:
1. The parents are not given the dates at the start of the year and so holidays get booked and players aren't there. We never go out with the best team as players are always missing. Kilkenny development squads get a calendar for all training and events between April and September. We need this too.
2. Clubs are not supporting the squads. Lads are being advised to rest instead of being encouraged to train the with their County.
3. The county board set an Under 16 championship match on the Monday evening before the blitz, a minor fixture on the Weds before the blitz and two clubs even held an under 16 friendly the NIGHT BEFORE the blitz. How can the players be expected to hurl well against 2 counties at a blitz when they are out on the Monday and the Weds (and for some again on Friday) during the week before? Amazingly there are now no fixtures for these players for the next 10 days.
4. The development squads get no media coverage. Go and have a look at the squad pages on the Kilkenny website. The squads feel important by the way they communicate about them. The development squads should be profiled, matches reported on. Today when 3 County development squad teams were out - the county Facebook page reported on a footballs skills day.
5. Our clubs should be promoting those players selected to play on the development squads - congratulate them publicly and acknowledge it on social media - as they do in Cork.
The clubs aren't supporting the development squads. The county board isn't supporting them either.
We need to build confidence and pride in these young men - our future hurlers. All they have ever seen is Offaly losing and they are going out with the mentality that they are going to lose too. Today, we were proud to see in the second half of the match against Kilkenny it was 50:50. They need Offaly to get behind them. Go to the matches and shout for them. But how can anyone do that unless they are a parent of a player...as they don't even know the matches are on?
I also think we need to start bringing the best of the u16s and u15s together much earlier in the process - if they can see that even if their squad is losing now...it might not always be that way when the best of the various age groups come together. To even win just one match doing that against a high profile county would give them a huge boost.
Congratulations to the development squad management on a job that's being well done. We need to support them if we are to have any future at all.
We're not giving these lads a fighting chance.
The management of the U15 Development Squad is absolutely excellent. They are doing all they can. The training has been stepped up to high intensity, high skill development for these boys. We've had skills tests, various expertise brought in and we can honestly say that the training this year has been transformed. The Squad got lovely gear too.
The dates for these development squad blitzes are known months in advance. They are on the county board calendar. The problems we have are that:
1. The parents are not given the dates at the start of the year and so holidays get booked and players aren't there. We never go out with the best team as players are always missing. Kilkenny development squads get a calendar for all training and events between April and September. We need this too.
2. Clubs are not supporting the squads. Lads are being advised to rest instead of being encouraged to train the with their County.
3. The county board set an Under 16 championship match on the Monday evening before the blitz, a minor fixture on the Weds before the blitz and two clubs even held an under 16 friendly the NIGHT BEFORE the blitz. How can the players be expected to hurl well against 2 counties at a blitz when they are out on the Monday and the Weds (and for some again on Friday) during the week before? Amazingly there are now no fixtures for these players for the next 10 days.
4. The development squads get no media coverage. Go and have a look at the squad pages on the Kilkenny website. The squads feel important by the way they communicate about them. The development squads should be profiled, matches reported on. Today when 3 County development squad teams were out - the county Facebook page reported on a footballs skills day.
5. Our clubs should be promoting those players selected to play on the development squads - congratulate them publicly and acknowledge it on social media - as they do in Cork.
The clubs aren't supporting the development squads. The county board isn't supporting them either.
We need to build confidence and pride in these young men - our future hurlers. All they have ever seen is Offaly losing and they are going out with the mentality that they are going to lose too. Today, we were proud to see in the second half of the match against Kilkenny it was 50:50. They need Offaly to get behind them. Go to the matches and shout for them. But how can anyone do that unless they are a parent of a player...as they don't even know the matches are on?
I also think we need to start bringing the best of the u16s and u15s together much earlier in the process - if they can see that even if their squad is losing now...it might not always be that way when the best of the various age groups come together. To even win just one match doing that against a high profile county would give them a huge boost.
Congratulations to the development squad management on a job that's being well done. We need to support them if we are to have any future at all.